2015 predictions for automotive & transportation

01/05/2015

It's that time of the year again. PlasticsToday takes a look inside its acrylic (or is it polycarbonate?) ball and hazards a forecast of what plastics processors can expect from the auto sector in 2015.

Lower resin prices

Crude oil prices collapsed towards the end of 2014 and the word on the street is that in 2015, they could continue to trend much lower than 2014 levels. That's good news for molders, and potentially good news for car sales. In 2014, global passenger vehicle (including pickup truck) sales looked set to reach 71.6 million units, with the U.S. experiencing a bumper year (16.5 million unit sales). Could we also see even higher sales in 2015?

More work on safety issues

We mentioned safety standards last year as a key theme and this proved to be the case. Consider the Takata fiasco, with millions of potentially faulty airbags on the road throughout the world, or the abysmal crash rating of the made-in-India budget Datsun Go. There's definitely scope for more work to be done to ensure the safety of passengers and pedestrians, be it keeping a close eye on QC or building cars for emerging markets to better safety standard.
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